About 4000 cruise ship passengers, mostly Australians, arrived into Port Chalmers on Sea Princess and Dawn Princess yesterday and many disembarked to see what the city had to offer.
That continued a busy couple of weeks for city tourism operators, hailing back to the days before the industry took a downturn of sorts several years ago, Ms van der Vlierd said.
"It's been very busy right through since Christmas Day. It's been amazing,'' she said.
"It's been like the good old summers again.''
Passengers had filled streets in the central city yesterday and attractions such as Cadbury's and the Taieri Gorge Railway had profited, she said.‘‘All the operators will be very happy with today.
"The town has been buzzing. There's also been lots of children today - it's been the busiest day children-wise coming off the cruise ships.''
Staff at i-Site offices in central Dunedin and Port Chalmers had received good feedback from visitors about tours they had been on, Ms van der Vlierd said.
"That's the main thing - that they come, they enjoy and they want to come back.''
Sea Princess and Dawn Princess had been based in Australia, meaning most passengers were from there, but other cruise ships which arrived in the city recently had brought people from all over the world, she said.
"There's been a real mix [of nationalities]. European visitors are looking up again, and we've noticed the Chinese market increasing, although Dunedin's always enjoyed a higher level of Chinese [presence] than other regions.''
Dunedin had also become a popular New Year destination for families and that had contributed to the busy time, she said.
"It's just seen as a great place to be and when the weather does what it did for us this year, it makes that even more so [the case].''
The cruise ships arrived in the city yesterday morning and departed in the evening.
